


Totally Not A Nerd

by ritspoon



Category: Persona 5
Genre: F/F, Pre-Relationship, futaba's got a crush on akira's new friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-16 06:27:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18685978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ritspoon/pseuds/ritspoon
Summary: Kasumi asks Futaba to teach her how to play Smash, and Futaba definitely does not flip out about it.





	Totally Not A Nerd

**Author's Note:**

> This is just something I wrote to de-stress from finals, so I didn't have anyone beta read it, sorry ! Despite Kasumi not having anything to her yet, I like to think she tries to keep a more elegant appearance, but is actually a closet nerd who loves video games & whatnot. I also think she and Futaba would be a very cute couple !!

“Akira you gotta help me!” Futaba yelled, busting down the door of LeBlanc.

“Hey—Futaba! What on earth has gotten into you?!” Sojiro asked, exasperated. “I haven’t ever seen you so worked up before!”

“I need Akira!” Futaba told him, a little quieter then her previous outburst. “It’s an emergency! A code-red! A Rank S mission!” 

And with that, Akira came walking down the stairs. A little faster than usual, but his expression was still neutral. “What’s up?” He asked when he came halfway down.

“I invited Kasumi to my room!” She explained, “It’s a disaster! It’s absolutely filthy, I need your help cleaning! I’ll do anything!” She clasped her hands together, bowing her head slightly “Please please please pleeeaaase!”

Akira nodded, his expression serious under his glasses. He had a newfound determination. “On it.”

It was amazing how much junk she had cluttered since the first time Akira had cleaned her room. She spent the majority of time in her room still, so of course something would accumulate. It was almost as bad as last time, however.

“Do you ever clean?” Akira asked her, shock keeping him in place with his feather duster and bucket.

“Yes! I do! But I’ve been working real hard on something lately and well…” She trailed, gesturing at the filth that spread out over her room.

He stood there, and Futaba could see he was attempting to strategize how to do this. “When is she going to be here?”

“Uh..tomorrow?”

He nodded. “Plenty of time.”

They cleaned for hours. Futaba had junk in places she didn’t even know junk could accumulate. She should have been embarrassed, but instead she found it fascinating. She truly had underestimated the extent of humanity.

They dusted and scrubbed and organized everything they could. It was hard work, especially for Futaba, but it paid off. The garbage was all tossed out, notebooks and documents organized in such a way Futaba could easily access, then placed away on her shelves for safe keeping. The pictures of brain scans and newspaper clippings were as well filed away, per Futaba’s request. It made her room appeared less cluttered, and also she wasn’t quite sure how to explain all of them being up on her wall without it seeming just a tiny bit strange.

What was left on her walls were her Featherman posters, and the hieroglyphics one on her door, because duh, that’s cool.

The floor was spotless, not a single piece of junk littering it. The wires to her computer and monitors were organized and tucked out of sight as well, and the boxes that held her clothes and such were set in a way that no longer looked like they would fall on her in her sleep. Finally, it was presentable to an almost-stranger.

“We did great! Kasumi’s going to be so impressed, she’ll swoon!”

Akira hummed in reply, his exhausted body crumpled down on the floor. “So that really is why you went through all this trouble.”

“What?” Futaba asked, looking down at his sad state of a body. “What are you talking about?”

Akira smirked, as if he had any right. “You like her?”

“Huh? Yeah? She’s cool?”

“Futaba.”

“Akira.”

Neither relinquished eye contact.

“Okay! Yeah! I do!” She groaned, and flopped down on her pristinely made bed, effectively ruining it. “She’s pretty, alright! And stupid talented, like she’s a gymnast! That’s so cool!” She waved her arms in the air. “And she’s sooo pretty! I can’t believe she wants me of all people to teach her how to play Smash.” Her arms flopped back down onto the bed, splayed out. “Why does she even wanna play?”

“Maybe she wants to try it out before buying it?”

Futaba snorted at that. “Doubt it. She doesn’t seem like the type to be into fighting games.”

“You think?”

“She’s too pretty for that stuff.”

“We’re pretty, and we like that stuff.”

A pause, then they both giggled. “Yeah. I guess you’re right.”

The wait for Kasumi the next day was agonizing. It was a school day, which made it even longer. She had no one to hang out with, all of the phantom thieves were at school. Even Akechi, who she would sometimes see early in the mornings before he went to work, wasn’t around to pester. Sojiro wasn’t fun company either, at first too tired to converse with her, than too busy to, then the mood was gone and Futaba no longer wanted to talk, even when Sojiro prompted her.

She spent the day making sure her room was absolutely clean, the going to LeBlanc, back to her room, back to the cafe, a vicious cycle produced by the nerves of having someone new enter room, and essentially a new person entering her life.

Well, it wasn’t necessarily that big of a step, right? She liked Kasumi, she seemed interesting enough at least. She didn’t know too much about her, only that she was a friend of Akira’s, one of the few that wasn’t part of the team. She was also very pretty, and a gymnast. A very pretty gymnast. 

Futaba felt the blood rush to her face, heavily focused on her cheeks. She huffed, and slapped them hard enough to snap herself out of it. She was not going to ruin a potential friendship by freaking out like this. So, instead of freaking out like this, she decided to pass the time by actually doing something. She picked up her Switch, and started to play Smash. She wanted to warm up before Kasumi got there, after all. She could woo her with how awesome she was with Inkling. It looked like her, she loved Splatoon, it was a perfect fit. Especially when she was using the splat roller to absolutely destroy people.

Time seemed to fly after that, and quickly enough four o’clock rolled around. Her phone alerted her of a text, and she finally tore her gaze away from the console.

**Kasumi:** Hey, I hope you still don’t mind me dropping by  
**Futaba:** ur cool! cant wait to see u :)  
**Kasumi:** Me too! :) I’m excited to play with you

Futaba swore her heart exploded. She could hear the explosion, felt something in her chest just go KABOOM! 

She yanked a pillow from her bed and screamed into it, her feet kicking. Oh, she had it bad. The smiley face Kasumi had sent her, the fact she was excited! To be with Futaba! It was killing her.

She had to be cool.

Pillow: fluffed.  
Switch: charging.  
Futaba: calm.

The doorbell rang and she yelped.

She ran out of her room, into the bathroom to give herself a quick once-over to make sure she looked as presentable as she had the last time she checked, then ran to the door. She took a deep breath, then opened the door.

“Yo.” She said, much more confident than she felt. She leaned up against the door way, acting like this was no big deal. If Kasumi had known Futaba any better, it would have been obvious that she thought this was anything but.

“Hey.” Kasumi smiled, her posture straight and smile perfect. Futaba stood up straight herself, and allowed her entrance.

“Welcome to my humble abode.” She said jokingly and bowed as Kasumi entered. The other girl giggled, and took off her shoes.

“Thank you again for offering to teach me how to play. Akira and the others keep talking about it, I was beginning to feel a little left out.”

“It’s no biggie, it’d be fun to have you play with all of us! You don’t even need a Switch, you can just borrow one of my controllers.”

“Oh, I have my own. Thank you, though. I appreciate it.”

Oh. Futaba actually didn’t expect that one. Her face lit up.

“What? No way! We should totally add each other! Do you have it with you right now?”

Kasumi seemed to tense up after that. “Oh, uh…” She trailed, looking anywhere but at Futaba. “No. Not with me currently.” She held her bag closer to her. “How about I add you when I get home? I’ll take a picture of your friend code.” 

Alright…Futaba would let that slide, no matter how weird Kasumi was about it. “Okay, sounds good. Mine’s in my room.” She said, jutting a thumb behind her. 

The walk to her room was a little nerve wrecking but thankfully, Sojiro’s house was not big.

“So…” she said when they got in. “What do you think?”

Kasumi took in her surroundings, seeming surprised, but not in a negative way. Futaba couldn’t blame her, she didn’t suspect her room was normal of a fifteen year old. 

“It’s….oh!” She gasped. Futaba looked at where Kasumi was looking, and zero’d in on her Featherman figures.

“Those?” Futaba smirked. “They’re cool huh? Got them from an online auction. Black Falcon was ridiculously hard to get, but the gang’s all here.”

Kasumi held her gaze, and Futaba could see she was trying to reel in some kind of emotion. Akira would do that too whenever he tried not to get too excited about something.

“That’s…cool. Very cool. The, uh, Falcon..He seems cool.” Oh, she was a worse liar than Akira was. Futaba’s smirk grew more mischievous. She had found something out about her new acquaintance.

“Yeah? You like Featherman, Kasumi?” 

Kasumi tensed again, and cleared her throat.

“I watched a little bit when I was a kid! It was very entertaining!” Her voice was slightly louder, a blush on her face. She was really bad at lying, huh?

Futaba didn’t want to scare her away though, not when they haven’t even played Smash yet. That wasn’t what a good host did.

“Well, that’s cool.” Futaba shrugged. “Wanna learn how to play now? Got it hooked up to my screen, uh, screens.” She motioned to the four monitors hooked up above her bed.

“Oh! Yes! Of course!” She was beaming, it was the life line she was looking for.

They played for a couple of hours. Futaba didn’t need to teach her as much as she thought she would have, even if Kasumi attempted to make her believe otherwise. She quickly figured out combo’s and how to use her final. She was very fond of the princesses, especially Zelda. And shit, she really had Futaba a couple of times. She had started out using characters she was less familiar with, but it really didn’t last long. Eventually she was using Starfox and Inkling, needing them to keep up the fight.

“Oh shit!” Futaba yelled, then groaned and flopped down onto her bed in defeat. Kasumi held up her controller in victory, her free hand on her hip. “Haha!” She exclaimed, as Zelda’s victory screen popped up. “Gotcha, Sakura!” She pointed her controller down at Futaba, her face smug and breaming with the adrenaline of victory.  
Futaba blushed.

“You got me, haha.” She sat up, rubbing the back of her neck. “You’re pretty good at this, for someone who’s said they’ve never played before.” She put her hand down at her side, giving Kasumi a look over. She definitely was hiding something about herself, although with the way she played, it wasn’t that she was some sort of competitive Smash player or anything. Was she shy?

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of a stomach growling. Loudly.

Kasumi’s face went red, and she looked down at the ground sheepishly. “I guess I didn’t realize how hungry I was.” She chuckled.

“Want some dinner then? I’m sure there’s something here we can eat.” Kasumi nodded, and they set forth to the kitchen.

Sojiro was already home, in the living room. He was watching something on TV, but looked up once he saw the two of them.

“Still here, huh?” It wasn’t an accusation, in fact he sounded pleased. He had that same knowing smirk he would give Akira from time to time, and it made Futaba fill with some sort of pride.

“Yup! And she hungers.” She teased, giving Kasumi a nudge.

Kasumi’s blush remained, but now limited towards her cheeks than her whole face.

Sojori chuckled and got up from his seat. “I figured, had something simmering for a bit just in case you two decide to show yourselves.”

It was curry, which was fine with Futaba. She loved his curry, even if he made it all the time. Kasumi had never had it either, so it would be fun to see her reaction.

Her first bite held no disappointment. She sat a little straighter in her seat, the tips of her fingers covering her mouth to hide her shock a little. “This is is delicious!” She exclaimed after she had swallowed, and dug in again with more vigor.

Both Futaba and Sakura chuckled at that, Futaba’s more fond. “Eat as much as you like, I’ve got plenty.” Sojiro told her, before sitting back down in the living room.

They ate in a comfortable silence, both of them too hungry to bother talking. Afterwards though, when they were full and neither feeling like getting up, Futaba brought up what had been bothering her.

“So,” She began, resting her arms on the table and leaning forward. “Why do you pretend you don’t like video games?”

Kasumi, who once sat slumped comfortable in her seat, shot up straight. “Huh?” She blurted, looking a little panicked, for whatever reason. “What? Do you mind?”

Futaba raised an eyebrow. “You really like Featherman, and you definitely are embarrassed about something on your Switch. The one you’re carrying in your bag.” Kasumi was sweating a little. “And you kicked my ass that last round. Before then you were pretty good too, it just looked like you were rusty. Why are you hiding it?” Her tone went from interrogative to something resembling concern.

Kasumi stared at her for a moment, blinked, then dropped her head, looking away from Futaba. “Isn’t it lame? To like stuff like this?” She sounded ashamed, but at least she wasn’t denying it.

“No? You saw my room, I think it’s cool! And so do the others, they all love Featherman and party games! There’s nothing wrong with liking stuff like this, and like, more people than us like it. It’s not uncommon for someone to play Smash of all things.”

“There are a lot more people out there who are more judgmental than you think.” Kasumi laughed, somewhat bitter. Her voice was so devastatingly small, so much more different than when she was playing with Futaba. Her had been boisterous, teasing, her guard was down, not afraid to slouch in her seat or use inappropriate language. Futaba missed that. It made her angry.

“Well,” She huffed and crossed her arms up to her chest. “I think they’re a lot more lame than whatever we’re doing. Who gives a shit? They’re fun, it’s not hurting anybody! And you have fun doing it. Nuh-uh, I know you do. I was there playing with you.” She cut her off as she saw an objection about to form. “You should just worry on what makes you happy, not about what others think. You can’t please ‘em all, after all.”

Kasumi looked at her, bewildered. But after a moment, her gaze softened, and she finally smiled. “You’re right.” She slouched back in her seat again. “I do have a reputation to uphold, though. I’m considered very skilled, and I can’t let my image have an impact on my performance. It’s…a lot of work. Trying to make sure I fit the image people have set for me.”

Futaba nodded along. She didn’t have any first hand experience with this sort of issue, but she knew enough people that she understood. “No one’s here right now.” She told her. “Except for me and Sojiro, anyways. And we don’t care. You can let loose, there aren’t any expectations of you here.”

There were tears welling up in Kasumi’s eyes, which made Futaba’s heart plummet. Oh god, she fucked up. She really fucked up. She just made her crush cry what the hell was wrong with her—

“Can I see your Featherman figures then?” Kasumi asked, cutting off Futaba’s train of thought completely.

“Oh! Sure! Of course! Y’know, I have the collectors edition of Deluxe Featherman, even got Yukari Takeba herself to autograph it.”

Kasumi’s eyes bugged out. “You got WHO?”

They spent the next hour gushing about Featherman and observing Futaba’s collection. They hadn’t been paying attention to the clock, and it was only when Kasumi got a call from her guardian that she realized she had missed the last train. Both her guardian and Sojiro had said it was fine for Kasumi to stay the night there, and they ended up staying up just a little too late watching both their favorite episodes of Featherman.


End file.
